Saturday, 5 May 2012

Challenge League Fifth Round

Fifth Round of games on May 5/6

While Vegalta Sendai's men folk were stumbling at home, their women counterparts were showing them the way in Ehime. Another eight goals - and a hat trick for Ito Minako - are making the Sendai fans giddy in anticipation of successful promotion to the Nadeshiko League. Sendai had an incredible 35 shots during the game, against Ehime's five. Also among the scorers were Shimokozuru Aya with the opening goal, her first of the season; Uetsuji Yumi who now has five, and Ideue Asako and Nakahara Saori who also scored their first goals of this campaign. Sendai next travel to winless Nagano looking to continue to show their potential.

Both sides were unchanged from last week's games in this bottom of the table clash. Hashiura gave Nagano hope of a maiden win this season before Sasaki and Shinagawa - two newcomers this season - came up with an equaliser with lesson than a quarter of an hour to go. Both teams stay together at the bottom.

Shimada Chiaki scored twice to bring her season's total to three and her team's points total to 12, leapfrogging their rivals to take control of the division for at least one night. Young defender Okada Ayame had headed Setagaya into the lead from a corner before Shimada scored two right-footed strikes to give Nittaidai the win.

While the 2-0 scoreline will not be a surprising result to keen followers of the Challenge League what will be notable is that for the first game Tokiwagi's big and powerful forward Michigami Ayaka was not among the scorers, despite having the most shots of any player in the match. Kawasaki scored in the 56th minute to give Tokiwagi a deserved lead after some neat build-up play. Ito Miki scored her fourth in four games nine minutes later to seal the win. Shizuoka started with an unchanged eleven from their previous game, while Tokiwagi gave Nishikawa Ayaka her first run out of the season.

FC Takahashi completely dominated Bunnys Kyoto in Okayama today, with a shots ratio of 29:5 in favour of the students. As early as the second minute Sugita Ami scored her third from six games to give Charme the lead, though it wasn't until the 39th minute that Takahashi Chiho headed home a corner to double the lead - both players were among the league's highest scorers last year. Komatsu Mina made her team debut at half time and 21 minutes later had her name on the score sheet. With this victory FC Takahashi move to the top of the table, though they have played a game more than their closest rivals.

In an extraordinary game Kagoshima took a 2-0 lead within 17 minutes before the JFA Academy girls came storming back to score four unanswered goals. In defence Hamada Erina made her first start for Kagoshima replacing Ito Chisa. Hirao Chika started her first game in goal for JFA Academy. Nakae Maki and Imanaka Yuri scored their first goals of the season to give Kagoshima hope of a second win of the season, but goals from Miyake Shiori, Kadoi Megumi, Masuya Rika and a penalty from Kojima Hikaru gave the schoolgirls the win which moves them up to seventh in the table. Masuya Rika now has four goals to her name this season.

Masyua Rika's third goal of the season was not enough to see off FC Takahashi as Takano Saki and Koike Ayano - with her first goal for the team - both scored with headers from dead ball situations to give the students a straightforward win over a JFA team unable to muster much in attack. Dreadful weather conditions didn't help either side.